
Strange Effect of a TIA. - Carers UK Forum

Strange Effect of a TIA.

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Not sure if this is the right place but wondered if anyone has heard of this effect that a TIA might have had on someone. I am full time carer of my 86 yr old mother who suffers from parkinsons with dementia, ostio aritus in her spine and a number of other ailments. During November and December her mental and physical health deteriorated to the effect that I was having to do everything for her, getting her in and out of bed, chair, getting her dressed, feeding her, changing her pants and cleaning her up when she had messed herself, getting up 3/4 times a night to get her on to comode, had to lift her into a wheelchair to get her from A to B and so on. She went into a care home for 2 weeks respite in December, got the hump and would not leave her room, walk and had to be fed again etc. Once home it just got worst for both of us until the 28th December when she had a TIA. I called an ambulance, she was taken into A&E for tests etc. The physio came down and got her out of her chair and got her walking much to my total surprise as prior to this, I had had to lift her in and out of bed, chair, toilet, commmode, and it was killing my back. Once back home her health continued slowly to improve, she was able to get in and out of bed, chair, onto commode and toilet, able to change her pants, I still get her dressed and undressed but she is able to use a spoon and fork and is eating well.

My question is - did the TIA cause her health to improve this way, I has asked a few medical persons about it, and apart from saying that it is unusual, they are not able to say why it has happened. Not that I am complaining as it has made my life easier as she is able to do so much more.
I have never heard of such a thing before. As mum has dementia, has anyone told you that she was completely exempt from Council Tax from the day of diagnosis, and will be entitled to a backdated refund? Are you claiming Attendance Allowance, getting help from Social Services so you have at least weekly "me" time?
That is the strangest thing I ever heard.

sorry - pleased for you but as baffled as the medics.
When Mum came out of hospital, it was on her discharge notes but no exclamation from anyone or anything on her medical notes! I will be making an appointment with our GP to have her referred to see the consultant to find out some more. Apart from a short term memory problem she is fairly lucid at the moment.
It does seem odd, but maybe the TIA actually restored blood flow to a previously 'starved' area, whilst cutting it off to a different one, but one that is not having any other effects on her!

That said, it does seem that dementia can 'vary'. My friend who has her father with dementia living with her told me a while back he'd lost the ability to eat for himself - she'd had to spoon feed food into him. THis lasted a good few weeks. Then 'suddenly' he was able to feed himself again - as though the bit in his brain that was responsible had been 'blocked' in some way, and then become 'unblocked'

Who knows, perhaps in years to come (in time for us, maybe?!!!!) if that kind of 'reversal' is truly happening, the doctors will be able to 'cure' dementia.....

On the other hand, maybe your mum simply 'decided' she was going to 'cooperate' again?? Those with dementia can be incredibly 'wilful', and maybe she's now decided she 'will' walk etc etc.
Thank you all for your replies. It would seem that she has had an electric shock and things are working again!! Touching wood that this goes on for a long time but I tend to live from day to day as parkinsons seems to be different every day!
That's strange.

My mum suffered from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, and had those moulded plastic L-shaped splint things with Velcro fastenings to help her walk, but never walked anywhere without a zimmer frame. One day she had a fall and was admitted to hospital (or possibly might have been in a care home - it's several decades ago). We'd assumed it was just "a fall", but I found out some years after she'd died that it had been a TIA and nobody had alerted us to the fact. But the odd thing was that she was walking around without the zimmer frame as if nothing was wrong. So maybe TIAs *can* have some unexpected side-effects?